Patent Application
20190360284
This application claims convention priority from Australian provisional patent application 2017900143 filed on 18 Jan. 2017. The contents of that application are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to a mobile coiled tubing drilling apparatus, primarily for use in mineral exploration, of the type where the coiled tubing is not required to rotate about its longitudinal axis in order for the drilling apparatus to operate.
Mineral exploration has historically used rotating drill strings (being a series of attached, rigid, pipe sections) with drill bits attached at one end to drill subterranean holes in an effort to locate valuable mineral deposits. As a rotating drill bit drills into the earth to form a borehole, additional pipe sections are added in order to drill deeper, while the opposite occurs as the drill bit is withdrawn from the borehole. A significant amount of time and energy (and thus cost) are consumed in adding and removing these pipe sections to assemble and disassemble drill strings during drilling.
Coiled tubing has been developed as an alternative to the use of drill strings (albeit typically for use in the oil industry not for mineral exploration), the coiled tubing typically being a ductile metal available in virtually unlimited lengths. The use of coiled tubing involves the uncoiling of a tube from a reel carrying such tubing, typically by an injector located above and close to a borehole, the injector being responsible for raising and lowering the tubing. The reel is typically located horizontally away from the injector and the borehole, and a curved guide (often referred to as a “gooseneck”) is used between the reel and the injector to guide the tubing from the reel across the apparatus to the injector. An example of this can be seen in FIG. 6 of US patent publication 2013/0341001 A1.
In most coiled tubing drilling, a bottom hole assembly (BHA) located at the bottom of the tubing typically includes a mud motor that powers and rotates a drill bit (given that the coiled tubing does not itself rotate), the mud motor being powered by the motion of drilling fluid pumped from the surface. In other forms of coiled tubing drilling, above-ground apparatus has been developed to allow for the rotation of the coiled tubing about its longitudinal axis. Needless to say, substantial and complex above-ground apparatus is required to be able to rotate an entire reel of coiled tubing to achieve such rotation of the tubing, and the present invention does not relate to rotating coiled tubing drilling of this type.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,284,618 to Geddes et al is an example of a non-rotating coiled tubing drilling apparatus. Geddes et al describes a difficulty with the use of many types of coiled tubing apparatus, namely the problem of bend related stresses causing fatigue in the ductile metal tubing as a result of the uncoiling and recoiling of the tubing on the reel. Geddes et al also points out that the traditional horizontally spaced location of a reel with respect to an injector, and the consequent use of one or more goosenecks to guide the tubing to the injector, adds to the number of bend events experienced by the tubing. This significantly shortens the life of the tubing, requiring the reel to be replaced reasonably often, resulting in increased cost due to down time and reel and tubing replacement.
The solution offered by Geddes et al is to locate a reel on a movable cart vertically spaced from an injector, with the reel pay-off point of the tubing thus located directly above the injector. The movable cart of Geddes et al can then be actively positioned during operation by an automated control system and positioning means as the tubing uncoils from the reel, so that once the tubing is off the reel there are no further bend events. The aim of Geddes et al is thus to only have one bend event (namely, the uncoiling of the tubing from the reel and its direct entry into the injector) during drilling, and one bend event (the tubing being recoiled after passing out from the injector) during withdrawal of the tubing from the borehole.
The automated control system of Geddes et al is a system that monitors the position of the tubing entering the injector and then moves the movable cart, in response to the tubing moving away from centre, to return the tubing to centre. The teaching of Geddes et al is thus to avoid applying force to the tubing between its pay-off point and the injector during both uncoiling of the tubing (during entry to the injector) and recoiling of the tubing (during exit from the injector), so as to reduce to an absolute minimum the bend events on the tubing.
However, Geddes et al has failed to recognise the impact of the bend already in the tubing while coiled on the reel, and thus the Geddes et al apparatus tends not to adequately control the straightness of the tubing as it enters the injector, in fact resulting in a residual plastic bend remaining in the tubing before entering the injector and the borehole, resulting in subsequent difficulties with the control and direction of the borehole.
Before turning to a summary of the present invention, it must be appreciated that throughout this description, terms such as “horizontal” and “vertical”, “upper” and “lower”, and “before” and “after” will be used. It should be understood that these and other similar orientation-type descriptive terms are made in relation to the orientation of an operational drill rig, which would normally be located on a reasonably flat (and thus horizontal) surface at ground level, and with respect to a normal tubing pathway on and off a reel and down and up a borehole. The terms are not, however, intended to bring operational limitations, or a requirement for parts of the apparatus to be perfectly horizontal or perfectly vertical.
Finally, it should also be noted that discussion of the background to the invention herein is included to explain the context of the invention. This is not to be taken as an admission that any of the material referred to was published, known or part of the common general knowledge as at the priority date of this application.
The present invention provides a mobile, coiled tubing drilling apparatus, the apparatus including a non-rotating mast on a mobile platform, the mast having mounted thereon an injector, a coiled tubing reel having a tubing pay-off point associated therewith, and a tubing control system, wherein:
the tubing control system is between the reel and the injector, and includes a tubing abutment adjacent the tubing pay-off point for applying an opposite bend to the tubing during pay-out of the tubing; and
the reel is mounted for horizontal (x,y) movement such that, during pay-out of the tubing, the tubing pay-off point can be maintained generally above the injector, and can also be moved towards or away from the tubing abutment.
Preferably, the reel is mounted for horizontal (x,y) movement such that, during pay-out of the tubing, the tubing pay-off point can be maintained generally above the injector but away from the injector's operational axis, the operational axis being defined by the pathway through the injector of the longitudinal axis of the tubing.
In contrast, and in relation to the re-coiling of the tubing that would occur when the tubing is being withdrawn from the borehole, given that the tubing entering the injector from below has already been straightened, and thus is not subjected to the existing bend that is present with coiled tubing being uncoiled, it is envisaged that the tubing abutment will not be utilised by the apparatus during tubing take-up, and that a tubing take-on point (being essentially the same point during re-coiling as the tubing pay-off point during uncoiling) will actually be as close as operationally possible to a point along the injector's operational axis, and thus will be directly above the injector. During take-up, it will be appreciated that the only bend event that need be applied to the tubing is the bending created by the re-coiling itself.
Therefore, the reel is preferably also mounted for horizontal (x,y) movement such that, during take-up of the tubing, the tubing take-on point can be maintained directly above the injector at a point along the injector's operational axis.
In a preferred form, the tubing control system also includes an adjustable tubing straightener after the tubing abutment and before the injector, the tubing straightener being adjustable such that it can engage tubing entering or exiting the injector and be utilised to provide more or less (or no) force to tubing entering or exiting the injector. For example, in one form, the adjustable tubing straightener will engage with tubing entering the injector (during pay-out), but not with tubing exiting the straightener (during take-up), for reasons that will be outlined below.
The tubing abutment is preferably fixed with respect to the mast so that the movement of the reel to maintain the tubing pay-off point generally above the injector during pay-out of the tubing also positions the tubing pay-off point of the reel adjacent the tubing abutment so that the tubing engages with the tubing abutment. In this respect, this engagement with the tubing abutment places an opposite bend in the tubing during pay-out (such a bend being “opposite” to the bend in the tubing that already exists in the coiled tubing from it being coiled on the reel), which in the preferred form occurs before the tubing passes through the adjustable tubing straightener and the injector.
The application of this opposite bend to the tubing at a location closely adjacent to the tubing pay-off point has been found to minimise stress on the tubing (and thus increase the operational life of the tubing) while reasonably accurately aligning the tubing with the injector and, if present, the adjustable tubing straightener. Indeed, although an adjustable tubing straightener is required to be adjustable and is referred to as a straightener, in practice, because of the arrangement of the tubing abutment in the manner outlined above, it has been found that only minimal further stresses are added to the tubing if an adjustable tubing straightener is adopted, and which then tends to actually only require minimal adjusting and minimal straightening.
Additionally, the application of the opposite bend to the tubing at a location closely adjacent to the tubing pay-off point has been found to reduce any residual plastic bend remaining in the tubing before entering the injector and the borehole, assisting in avoiding subsequent difficulties with the control and direction of the borehole.
In contrast to this engagement of the tubing with the tubing abutment during pay-out, during take-up of the tubing it is preferred to avoid such engagement by moving the reel away from the tubing abutment (and out of engagement with it) such that, as mentioned above, the take-on point is maintained generally above the injector at a point along the injector's operational axis. Additionally, the tubing is ideally not engaged by the adjustable straightener during take-up. In this way, no additional bend event occurs to the tubing during take-up (via either the adjustable straightener or the tubing abutment), other than the bending of the tubing that occurs as the tubing is re-coiled back on to the reel.
In one form, the tubing abutment may be an elongate abutment beam, fixed generally vertically to the mast with an upper end and a lower end, and with the upper end being the end located adjacent the tubing pay-off point of the reel during operation. In this form, the uncoiling tubing will engage with the upper end of the abutment beam and will ideally be guided along the abutment beam to the injector (or an adjustable straightener, if present) during pay-out of the tubing. Preferably, the elongate abutment beam will be a substantially straight and elongate abutment beam, having a channel therealong that is capable of receiving and guiding therealong tubing from the reel.
The present invention thus also provides a method of operating a mobile, coiled tubing drilling apparatus, the apparatus including a non-rotating mast on a mobile platform, the mast having mounted thereon an injector, a coiled tubing reel having a tubing pay-off point associated therewith, and a tubing control system between the reel and the injector, wherein the reel is mounted for horizontal (x,y) movement and the tubing control system includes a tubing abutment adjacent the tubing pay-off point, the method including:
maintaining the tubing pay-off point generally above the injector and adjacent to the tubing abutment during pay-out of the tubing by way of the horizontal (x,y) movement of the reel;
applying an opposite bend to the tubing during pay-out of the tubing by engagement of the tubing adjacent the pay-off point with the tubing abutment; and
maintaining a tubing take-on point above the injector and away from the tubing abutment during take-up of the tubing by way of the horizontal (x,y) movement of the reel.
In relation to the mobile platform and the requirement for the mast to be non-rotating, in a preferred form the mast is mounted on the mobile platform so as to be movable between an upright drilling position where the reel is above the injector, and a lowered transport position, and also so as to be non-rotatable.
In relation to the mast being mounted so as to be non-rotatable, some drilling rigs that utilise coiled tubing are designed to allow for the rotation of a reel about the vertical axis of the tubing down a borehole. Apparatus of that type has differing design requirements than apparatus of the type that the present invention relates to, being apparatus with non-rotating masts.
Further, the movability of the mast between an upright drilling position where the reel is above the injector, and a lowered transport position, assists with the mobility of the apparatus, allowing for transport to occur by road or by rail in traditional forms. Also, the mobility of the platform itself can of course be provided by any known and desirable means for movement on land, such as by a continuous track propulsion system or a traditional wheel-based propulsion system, while the ancillary drilling equipment that may additionally be provided on the mobile platform may include any of fluid pumps, air compressors, nitrogen purge systems, a diesel engine, hydraulic pumps and valves, and suitable control and operating systems, including remotely controlled systems as necessary.
In another preferred form, not only is the reel mounted on the mast for horizontal (x,y) movement during drilling, but the reel is preferably also mounted on the mast for vertical (z) movement. This vertical movement may be provided by the mast including, for example, a telescoping type of configuration.
Such vertical movement of the reel is advantageous in providing for relatively small vertical movement of a drill bit (for example), located at the bottom of the tubing in a borehole, into and out of contact with the bottom of the borehole. This is in preference to such movement having to be provided by rotating the reel to raise or lower the drill bit, which, if avoided, can further reduce the stresses placed on the tubing, further increasing the operating life of the tubing.
It will also be appreciated that the mast of the apparatus would normally also include, below the injector, a retractable, conventional rotary head that can be used for drilling with conventional drill rods. In this respect, the apparatus of the invention can then be used to install casing or the like to the borehole, or to connect and disconnect the different elements of a bottom hole assembly.
Turning now to a description of the reel and its mounting, as mentioned above the reel is mounted on the mast for horizontal (x,y) movement such that the tubing pay-off point can be maintained generally above the injector during pay-out and, preferably, directly above the injector during take-up of the tubing. In this respect, and identifying movement in the x direction as being movement of the reel towards and away from the mast, and movement in the y direction as being movement of the reel along its own longitudinal axis, the x direction movement is preferably provided by mounting the reel on the mast via pivoting arms that are controlled to pivot towards and away from the mast.
Such pivoting movement therefore moves the entire reel towards and away from the mast (as required, either before, during or after drilling) and thus towards and away from the tubing abutment mentioned above. Mounting the reel in this manner thus essentially provides for movement of the longitudinal axis of the reel towards and away from the tubing abutment, and of the coiled tubing on the reel towards and away from the tubing abutment, and thus of the pay-off point of the tubing towards and away from the tubing abutment. Indeed, during drilling, this movement permits the tubing at the pay-off point to be continually urged towards and against the tubing abutment as the tubing uncoils from the reel and as the diameter of the tubing coiled on the reel decreases.
The y direction movement is movement of the reel along its own longitudinal axis, again so as to maintain the pay-off point of the tubing adjacent to the tubing abutment as the tubing uncoils from the reel. In this respect, it will be appreciated that the pay-off point of the tubing will move along the longitudinal axis of the reel as the reel rotates about its longitudinal axis and as the tubing uncoils. With the reel being adapted to provide for continual adjustability of the reel along its longitudinal axis, the reel can be moved in the y direction in response to the pay-off point moving in the y-direction, thus keeping the pay-off point adjacent to the tubing abutment as required, and also keeping the tubing at that point in engagement with the tubing abutment to apply the requisite opposite bend thereto.
Having briefly described the general concepts involved with the present invention, a preferred embodiment of a mobile coiled tubing drilling apparatus will now be described that is in accordance with the present invention. However, it is to be understood that the following description is not to limit the generality of the above description.
In the drawings:
Illustrated in
The vertical axis mentioned above is designated in
The mobility of the platform 14 is provided in this embodiment by a continuous track propulsion system 15, while much of the ancillary drilling equipment provided on the mobile platform (such as fluid pumps, air compressors, nitrogen purge systems, a diesel engine, hydraulic pumps and valves, and suitable control and operating systems) have been omitted from
As mentioned above, such vertical movement of the reel 16 is advantageous in providing for relatively small vertical movement of a drill bit (for example), located at the bottom of the tubing in a borehole, into and out of contact with the bottom of the borehole. This is in preference to such movement having to be provided by rotating the reel 16 to raise or lower the drill bit, which, if avoided, can further reduce the stresses placed on the tubing, further increasing the operating life of the tubing.
The mast 12 of the apparatus 10 also includes, below the injector 18, a retractable, conventional rotary head 22 (only partly shown) that can be used for drilling with conventional drill rods. In this respect, the apparatus 10 can then be used to install casing or the like to the borehole, or to connect and disconnect the different elements of a bottomhole assembly.
Referring now to
In this embodiment, the tubing control system of the apparatus 10 also includes an adjustable tubing straightener 32 after the tubing abutment 20 and before the injector 18, the tubing straightener 32 being adjustable such that it can engage tubing 30 entering or exiting the injector 18 and be utilised to provide more or less (or no) force to tubing 30 entering or exiting the injector 18. In this embodiment, the adjustable tubing straightener 32 is shown in
The tubing abutment 20 is shown fixed with respect to the mast 12 so that the movement of the reel 16 to maintain the tubing 30 pay-off point A generally above the injector 18 during pay-out of the tubing 30 also positions the tubing pay-off point A adjacent the tubing abutment 20 so that the tubing 30 engages with the tubing abutment 20. As mentioned above, this engagement with the tubing abutment 20 places an opposite bend in the tubing 30 during pay-out (such a bend being “opposite” to the bend in the tubing 30 that already exists in the coiled tubing from it being coiled on the reel 16), which in this embodiment occurs before the tubing 30 passes through the adjustable tubing straightener 32 and the injector 18.
The tubing abutment 20 is an elongate abutment beam, fixed generally vertically to the mast 12 with an upper end 20a and a lower end 20b, and with the upper end 20a being the end located above the tubing pay-off point A of the reel 16 during operation. The uncoiling tubing 30 engages with the abutment beam and is guided along the abutment beam to the adjustable straightener 32 and then to the injector 18 during pay-out of the tubing 30. The elongate abutment beam is substantially straight and elongate, and has a channel 36 therealong that is capable of receiving and guiding therealong tubing 30 from the reel 16.
As mentioned above, the application of this opposite bend to the tubing 30 at a location closely adjacent to the tubing pay-off point A has been found to minimise stress on the tubing 30 (and thus increase the operational life of the tubing 30) while reasonably accurately aligning the tubing 30 with the adjustable tubing straightener 32 and the injector 18. The application of the opposite bend has also been found to reduce any residual plastic bend remaining in the tubing 30 before entering the borehole, assisting in avoiding subsequent difficulties with the control and direction of the borehole.
In contrast, and referring to
With reference to
In this respect, and identifying movement in the x direction as being movement of the reel towards and away from the mast 12 (left and right on the page), and movement in the y direction as being movement of the reel 16 along its own longitudinal axis (axis Y-Y in
Such pivoting movement therefore moves the entire reel 16 towards and away from the mast 12 (as required, either before, during or after drilling) and thus towards and away from the tubing abutment 20. Mounting the reel 16 in this manner provides for movement of the longitudinal axis Y-Y of the reel 16 towards and away from the tubing abutment 20, and of the coiled tubing 30a,30b on the reel 16 towards and away from the tubing abutment 20, and thus of the pay-off point A of the tubing towards and away from the tubing abutment 20.
Indeed, during drilling, this movement permits the tubing 30a,30b at the pay-off point A to be continually urged towards and against the tubing abutment 20 as the tubing 30a,30b uncoils from the reel 16 and as the diameter of the tubing 30a,30b coiled on the reel 16 decreases, as is shown from
In this respect, it will be appreciated that the pay-off point A of the tubing 30a,30b will move along the longitudinal axis Y-Y of the reel 16 as the reel rotates about its longitudinal axis Y-Y and as the tubing 30a,30b uncoils. With the reel 16 being adapted to provide for continual adjustability of the reel 16 along its longitudinal axis Y-Y, the reel can be moved in the y direction in response to the pay-off point A moving in the y-direction, thus keeping the pay-off point A adjacent to the tubing abutment 20 as required, and also keeping the tubing 30a,30b at that point in engagement with the tubing abutment 20 to apply the requisite opposite bend thereto.
Finally, there may be other variations and modifications made to the configurations described herein that are also within the scope of the present invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017900143 | Jan 2017 | AU | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/AU2017/050508 | 5/30/2017 | WO | 00 |
